While visiting the Funko booth this past weekend at Toy Fair, I had the opportunity to chat with three individuals from Funko regarding current and upcoming Funko news: Allison Nehls, Marketing Coordinator; Ben Butcher, Vice President of Creative; and Brian Mariotti, President.
Left to right: Brian Mariotti, Ben Butcher, and Allison Nehls*
We chatted some about current lines, upcoming products, and what could be in the future. With that, I present to you The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
The Good
~ Allison said that there WILL be a Walking Dead Pop! Series 5. Details of the series are not known, but they will be made.
~ In the catalog, Disney’s Princess Aurora Pop! Vinyl appears now as a regular release, and she appeared in a display case at the Funko booth this weekend. Allison confirmed that she will be appearing at retailers soon.
~ When asked about Breaking Bad, Allison confirms they are in discussion to bring them to Pop! form. Here’s hoping!
~ Also an excitement to some, Workaholics has come up in discussion as a possible future Pop! line.
~ Ben mentioned it on the show floor, and Allison confirmed: FROZEN Pop! Vinyls will be made. According to Ben, they are currently being sculpted.
~ Brian is very happy with the excitement surrounding the new Hikari and Fabrikations lines. He thinks Fabrikations will be the sleeper hit of the year, and has said that the Hikari line will expand; that a lot of companies have signed up for the Hikari treatment, including Star Wars, Marvel, and Ghostbusters.
~ Talked to Ben about the How to Train Your Dragon 2 Pop! Vinyls, which he is very excited about. The sculpters of Toothless used an employee’s custom done years prior as inspiration, and he said we can expect exclusive variants of our favorite dragon down the road, possibly including one with glowing eyes.
~ Ben also mentioned that, if Dragons 2 is a hit, this could easily lead them into other Dreamworks licenses… Shrek anyone?
~ I also overheard Ben telling a buyer that they hope to be able to do a burnt Stay Puft variant and maybe even marshmallow splattered variants of the Ghostbusters. Forgot to confirm with Allison, but it’s still quite exciting.
~ They are going to keep the Marvel line as Bobble Heads, as represented with the new Mystery Minis coming out.
~ Brian is very excited about the new Disney releases coming out. He did want to stress that all of the prototypes we saw on display (Bambi series, Maleficent Movies duo, Roger Rabbit Series, and Lion King series) will probably be tweaked here and there, mainly with size. He specifically mentioned Bambi being too small and Flower and Thumper being too big, and Rafiki being way too massive.
The Bad
Unfortunately, there has to be some bad….
At the request of the community over at Funko Trading (our Facebook Group), these following lines have been labeled as “No”, “Not Continuing” or “No Action at this Time” by Allison:
~ Buffy Legacy
~ Future Clear Pop! Vinyls (like the Bilbo baggins)
~ Orange is the New Black
~ Bravest Warrior
~ Supernatural
~ Harry Potter
~ Nintendo/ Capcom
~ Doctor Who
~ Sherlock
~ It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
~ Gravity Falls
~ Spartacus
~ 70’s Sitcoms
~ 90’s Sitcoms
~ Hunger Games
~ Thundercats
~ Power Rangers
Somebody also asked me to find out if there are any more Pop! Rides in the works. Aside from the ones already released and the couple of concept arts in the catalog, Allison does not believe that there are any new Pop! Rides coming out.
The Turtle Van, an upcoming Pop! Rides Release
There was a request about more Deadpools (personally, I think there are too many already). Allison did not know if there are any more slated (I hope not).
When asked if Bagheera will become to Pop! form to round out the Disney’s Jungle Book series (Baloo and King Louie were released in Series 4, and Kaa, Mowgli, and Shere Khan appear as concept art in the catalog), I unfortunately got a no from Brian.
The (Possible) Ugly
Then we get the tidbits that might (and probably will) cause controversy within the hobby:
~ There are plans for TWO more limited edition Pop! Rides Batmobiles… Both based off Japanese Tins and both exclusive to Toy Tokyo. A red one will be available in the near future, and a gold one will be available at SDCC. In addition to the Batmobiles being different paint jobs, this time around the caped crusader will also be variant painted. Brian knows fully well how Toy Tokyo handled themselves in the past with the Blue Batmobile fiasco, but said that they have talked things over, and he is confident that things will be smoother in the future.
~ 9″ Pop! Vinyls are no more (at least not for the forseeable future). Instead, some lines will run 6″ Pop! Vinyls to flesh out their 3″ lines (like Stay-Puft from Ghostbusters and the Wampa from Star Wars, which are both coming out this year).
(Note: Also absent from the show floor this year, in any form: Blox, Cupcakes, and Invaders.)
~ Game of Thrones Rhaegal (part of the Amazon Exclusive 3pk) will NOT be released singularly. I am assuming that the other two in the bundle (Bloody Khal Drogo, and Charred Deanerys) are also exclusive to that pack as well and will not be sold seperately.
~ The Hellboy Pop! that was announced to be made back in 2012 will NOT be happening.
~ Aside from the Marvel movies coming out this year and Agent Phil Coulson from the Agents of SHIELD TV Series, do not expect any new regular Marvel characters to be released.
(I have a feeling we will see some Pop! from X-Men: Days of Future Past from the way Allison mentioned this…. I even notated “X-Men” on my pad.)
~ There are no plans for a Nurse Joker to be released. Additionally, and along the lines of Marvel, there are no plans to release new DC characters this year, aside from Teen Titans, which are shipping now, if they haven’t already.
Well, that was all from Toy Fair. Unfortunately, both Brian and Ben were swamped the entire show, so talking with them was a bit on/ off… and when you get double booked with Allison for an appointment by accident, leisure one cannot have. However, I would like to thank all of them for taking the time to talking to me and answering a lot of the questions that we here at Pop Vinyls, and our members at Funko Trading, had.
For more pics from the Funko booth at Toy Fair, don’t forget to look at my Photo Journal, as well as our Live Blogging Posts here and here.
Looking for more images from the 2014 catalog? Stay tuned this weekend for a Full Downloadable copy of the catalog, as well as a chance to win a copy of your very own!
*Photo Credits: Brian- www.heraldnet.com, Ben- www.vinylmationworld.com, Allison- @alpartyprogram on Instagram. All other photos taken by Travis Denman for PopVinyls.com
Matt Norris